The present study tested whether the spatio-temporal structure of activity was also …

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Biology Articles » Ecology » Locomotor activity in common spiny mice (Acomys cahirinuse): The effect of light and environmental complexity » Figures

Figures

- Locomotor activity in common spiny mice (Acomys cahirinuse): The effect of light and environmental complexity

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Figure 1 Distance traveled (mean ± SEM) in the lit arenas (open bars) and dark arenas (dark bars). Arena size and number of stones in each arena are depicted along the x-axis. Significant comparisons, as revealed in Tukey HSD test, are depicted by lines at top left. As shown, traveled distance did not change with only arena size. Adding four stones to a small arena significantely increased traveled distance (compare small arena with 0 and with 4 stones); however, adding 4 stones to a large arena did not have a significant effect. In the dark arena, the number of stones did not have a significant effect on the traveld distance.

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Figure 2 Scaling of interstop distance according to arena size. In the small arena (left illustration) the spiny mouse takes two round trips that start and end at the home base (top left corner), stopping only in the corners of the arena (4 stops/round trip, including the stop at the home base). In the large arena, the spiny mouse takes one trip, stopping only at the corners of the arena (again, 4 stops). Thus, trip length and interstop distance are shorter in the small arena, and the number of trips and overall number of stops are smaller in the large arena. The shorter but more frequent trips in the small arena and longer but fewer trips in a large arena result in the same overall traveled distance and the same number of stops per trip.

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Figure 3 Trajectories of locomotion of exemplary spiny mice in lit arenas (top) and dark arenas (bottom). Each square shows one spiny mouse. As shown, in both small and large empty arenas, either dark or lit, spiny mice moved through the center in a convoluted path, changing frequently the direction of progression. Locomotion in the center increased in the dark or with the number of stones. With stones, trajectories of locomotion comprised more straight segments and fewer changes in direction of progression.

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